The Customer Purchase Lifecycle

Last Update: March 09, 2018

Before you decide on selling anything online, you need to first determine who your customer is, what they often purchase, and why they are purchasing online.

This is called "customer comprehension". The better you understand your customer, the easier it will be to sell stuff to them. Obviously, at the core of any business, the ultimate goal is to create a profit. To create a profit, you must have customers and you must be able to sell to these customers.

One of the most common mistakes I see people make is promoting to a customer (or audience) before they fully understand who their audience is. It is very easy to waste money promoting what you "think" people want, rather than what they are actually looking for.

Don't make assumptions on your customers, gain an understanding. You will be much more successful.

Before we go any further, we need to understand the steps someone takes between the time they learn of a product or service, to the time that they actually make a purchase. That is what my goal is to help you understand.

Let's look at some It is a known facts about a customer:

(1) Customers rarely buy on their first point of contact to a product(2) It typically takes a person 7 times (this could be website visits, email newsletter, etc.) before they make a purchase online.(3) Customers do not buy from people they don't trust(4) Customers are exchanging "money" for something that will improve upon their existing situation(5) Customers have more access to product information and reviews than they ever have(6) Most customers can see through scammy promotions, in fact are turned off

I am going to show you how to catch people later in their buying cycle so you can increase your chances of someone "buying" versus having to walk them through all points of contact. This will simplify the selling process drastically!

Good day to all,
I am going to take the questions on the lesson and use them. My purchasing style, may be a little different. I usually buy almost immediately because I try doing all the search at the same time.
But I will take these samples questions into account, thank you Kyle.
Very best
LadyEsther

That is the great thing, all of our purchasing styles are somewhat different, but we all have commonalities. The key thing is understanding that there is a REAL person on the other side of the transaction, that will change how you approach the sales process.

If you get people to like you and you help people, conversions become that much more efficient.

I'm looking forward to delving into the customer relationship training as well as all of the progressive training that is to come. This is exciting times steadily moving forward, forming a business of my own but also forming new WA acquaintances, and also being so fortunate as to be a part of an elite training platform I look forward to continuing to advance in for years to come. Much thanks to Kyle and Carson.

I just watched Jay's 21 min ranking video. I want to try and apply his technique, but I need to verify my website first on google console, but I can't access my cpanel on the website hosted on WA. How can I verify my website or how do I get to my Cpanl on WA?

WA does not use CPanel. There should be an option to paste a code from Google into your site code (which you can do with various tools such as the "Haders and Footers" plugin or simply by entering it in the appropriate spot in the All In One SEO plugin. the code should look something like this (characters changed):

BFCiXeux36aFTUvx4HgFnl3Pex7pgADZ6-xexrT504x

I took my code and pasted it into the All In One SEO tool under General Settings > Webmaster Verification > Google Webmaster Tools.

I like the article but - I did not realize that their are key words for buying and researching - is there a key word place to find keywords specific keywords or is that what jazzy does
So I definitely have to work harder on my site to get it ranked and developed more before it could make money

This lesson was spot on. I learned alot about internet customers delaying purchases until the toughly look at from all perspectives. Now I remember doing that same thing myself. Unbelievable how I changed as I gained confidence in the program. Thank you so much for turning me around for my own good!
Ruben

Under phase #3 the training material reads like- “Someone who is searching the term "wealthy affiliate review" has probably already done a significant amount of research and are into the Decision phase. They may have started by searching the term "affiliate marketing" and found a website promoting Wealthy Affiliate. They then did some additional research and analysis on Internet marketing related schools to decide which program would be best suited for them. Finally, they search the program they are interested in joining, Wealthy Affiliate.”

The question is- if someone has already done research and made decision by visiting another blog site then the customer is already locked in by that blog site through a sticky cookie, correct? So even if the customer makes purchase using my link, I won’t get the affiliate commission.

From this perspective, isn’t it better to target customers at research phase?

Now I understand that if a visitor has landed on WA site through google search or through other blog site but did not sign-up, NO sticky cookie is assigned to the visitor. But when the visitor signs-up for free membership though a blog or ad link, only then s/he gets a cookie or gets tied to some other sort of record keeping.

If a person comes to your site from another site and joins WA through your link then the referral is yours no matter how many cookies other sites have.
If they signup from another site through a link that is yours, you get the referral credit.

Of course if they signup through someone else's link, even if its on your site then the other person gets the referral credit.

Thank you Kyle for your experience and wisdom in Key words and what attracts and keeps customers coming back.
This is not only for the short one off sale or search but a loyal for the long term customer that is what we are all after (network great information and product which keeps people coming back for more).

this is an interesting article, i read a book called "way of the wolf" by jordan belfort that also simplified selling in a stock market environment, but of course it can transfer to any niche.. if anyone has any selling books they recommend please also leave them in the comments.

When talking about reviewing products i really agree that this is a great way to acquire customers that follow through. This is of course if they trust your information. My question is this......How do you review products or services without spending loads of money buying all of them so you can check them out and review them? I think this is a great way to get customers but like i said, you need to know what you are talking about/be able to give honest and thorough reviews. If anyone has any insight on this it would be much appreciated!

So are you suggesting that heavily researching the products you are wanting to review could be/is an alternative?

I know that using them or testing them first hand is the best way to review but i think that even if the products weren't 'luxury holiday' expensive then reviewing a few or basing your sales around the review stage will become very costly.

These statistic are interesting, I wonder where the (2) fact about 7 visits to a site before they trust and will purchase! It seems counter intuitive; if a person is searching for my product, why would they visit so many times if they needed a product?
You might guess competition, but each of us has a niche, not a common product of easy substitution...
Thanks Kyle

That is not always the case, far from it. That is a cliche and a general rule of them on the entirety of the purchase process, you can walk them through all 7 within a well design marketing process...and you can also catch people that are much further along in the life cycle.

Well I got onto a product that has stem cell technology in it and all the brown spots on my hands have gone and the few I had on my neck are fading so I do not mind promoting a product that
a) I use and b) that works. They have not brought out a supplement with the same technology and I take them. - one in the morning and one at night
The second one is Pure Essential Oils and I swear by them and of course they are natural products. I hate anything synthetic and I don't wear make up - just take care of my skin and my diet.
I think that if you use a product and know the advantages you are much more of an authority and people can sense that
Anyhow onwards and upwards
Carol

I have experience in "belly to belly" sales work and came to understand the importance of building a relationship with my customer before they actually became a buying customer. For some strange reason I did not transfer that knowledge over to my endeavour for building an online business. This article cements that knowledge and confirms what I must do to create relationship with folks who are coming to my website(s). Well done WA... I so appreciate these great WA lessons!

This is great info. Unfortunately (or not) I have chosen a niche where there is not a lot of selling involved. It's more an informational niche. There are some opportunities to maybe find a couple of affiliate programs that could support supplies but I'm thinking this info will be more applicable to the next website I build. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Buying from people you trust and seeing through scammy promotions. If your just being yourself with an idea or product that is intended to help people, then chances are you'll be successful to a certain degree. What separates the successful from the mediocre in Affiliate Marketing is the professionalism of your website. And that's why I've chosen WA. I feel they give me the best chance at building a portfolio of Domains that will enable me to build an Affiliate Income that will be residual for years to come. I'm not looking to make money next month, I'm looking years down the road, I know if I keep learning and making mistakes, that someday I'll look around and suddenly realize, that I've become an expert in Affiliate Marketing, in spite of myself.

So true, it really is a journey... you already know more than 80% plus of the population by being here. Once you've crafted the basics the possibilities are limitless. I have 4 main products/tools and that's it.
Much success
~ Andrea

Well said on professionalism of the website.
Someone outside WA community actually queried why I'm writing such long posts (targeting 1,000 words) and I told them, it's all about credibility!
They were left speechless, and we all know the effect of a masterpiece piece of music on us all...

all this information is great. but what if you are an author. my case is simply that. I really genuinely have no problem to solve for the visitors. I simply provide fiction books. how do these concepts apply in this case? how do you go by building your content? to monitize your books.any author advice?

It sounds like you are just more in need of getting traffic to your writing, is that correct?
Do you plan to sell your work from the website you are creating?

Many folks here are learning to write reviews of existing products and make recommendations to their followers for affiliate sales.
Let me know what you are trying to accomplish, to see if I can assist.
My best,

how do we compete against direct purchasing via amazon who already have great search and thousands of product reviews? If someone broadly knows the product they are looking for, then I guess they go straight to amazon. So maybe we can only pick up people who have a problem, need a solution but don't know what the solution is yet?? our content gives them suggestions of a solution for a product/service and we hope they click through on our sites vs going off separately to research our suggestions rather than clicking through direct from our sites?

It is true, if someone knows what they want they will search for the specific product themselves. Many people will follow you because of your blog and the information & personal attention they receive from you. Many people need help making decisions & love to receive tips from someone they trust.

thanks, this is why I am thinking at the moment that the only chance of a real USP over the big online retailers is 'you' in effect, which means building up your own profile as well as your site content potentially, to get people to want to take advice from you personally, vs the thousands of people that provide reviews in the big retail platforms ……. very daunting and not easy I suspect! I am thinking it's going to take video content as well as written content to draw people in. This really is a heart and soul investment isn't it....what's your experience?

You would be amazed at how many people do not know about Amazon. There are millions and millions of people in the world so I do not think you need worry about getting traffic. I would look at affiliates outside of amazon - and there are thousands and thousands of affiliates - and choose ones that have the highest commissions. They are out there believe me - I have looked for my own niche.
All the best
Carol

Excellent Info Kyle. I might be jumping the gun sort of but I saw some information somewhere that Google has a section where you can find who is searching for what and who is buy what amongst other things. I'm sure you heard about it, if it does exist. Please let me know if you heard something or hear anything. Thank you.

Very informative and helpful in gaining more understanding of what is required. I have been involved in "smash & grab" type of selling organisations before. This seems to be a far more valuable approach where customers can actually enjoy interaction with you and not feel as though they have been "sold" to. Thanks for info.

This certainly is not. We teach you how to build a long term and sustainable business, while establishing a SOLID brand. That is how all great businesses are created, and that is our approach to business.

There is reason why we are the most trusted organization in the industry, but not just that, the community is building out their businesses in the exact same way.

Thank you for the info! It's true that it takes a couple of times reaffirming what they want before they buy especially if they are investing something expensive.

What I have learned from UI/UX Design is the importance of creating multiple user profiles. To deeply understand a customer, you create persona cards and write down their habits, their likes, their dislikes, their distinct personalities, and other minor details in order to fully understand your audience.

Hi, a very good post and I think it will be very helpful to me. But I am wondering something, is there here in the training a lesson about tools to take care of signing up your customers' email, and how to take care of them in the future? And the one who is prospects for you in the future? If not, which tool do you recommend? I do not think I have missed this in my training so far, but I think it is time to implement it on my site. Kind regards Linda.

This is so like me now, really been this way for some years. Like before joining WA. i research a lot of websites about if it was a scam or not. Read 10 or more.All saying it wasn't, it was a great community of real people wanting something more out of life. Then i came to Little bit site. Liked what i read and here I am. Now am here I love all the friendship and community this place has to offer. It's tougher then I thought' but I'am getting there slowly but surely.
Thinks to all the information that is offered. couldn't type before, now look at me hunt and pick. Kyle you said it's a big word TRUST.
This is a good article Kyle.

So all the blogs and post I have made are junk no problem because I know what I will sell now and wasn't sure before
so do I take down all my post on 1 site where I plan my business,and start new with post on my product only ? or do I leave the about me page ?

I love how it sounds, "Customer Comprehension" because in Spanish, my language, "Compensión al Cliente" is very loving and sweet. Nevertheless, very true. We mostly tend to forget that contribution consciousness to customer service which is human relations. We have quite lost that across the globe, but we have managed to find it here in WA and it feels soooo good to share it and pass it around to one another. Be blessed everyone!

Of all the target market training I have ever done. Not one has been as straight forward and to the point as this. This is what I like best about WA! No beating around the bush! they give you the information and you are free to run with it. But you better RUN!

Hi and welcome - yes the training is great as are the webinars every Friday evening with Jay. There is also nowhere else on the internet or in main stream business where you have such easy access to the co-founder in Kyle. Considering that there are 1 million users on this platform that is a great achievement. If there is anything I can do to help you at any time - providing I am online - please feel free to contact me.
Carol from Australia

Shouldn`t you target the customers in the Research Phase specific in posts in this stage of your site building?
If you dont have any affiliate links or anything to sell yet there wouldn`t be any point of writing posts that targets custumers in the Decision Phase or the Purchasing/Action Phase,right?

Yes you´re absolutely right,it`s the building up trust and have reccuring visitors aspect I overlooked here.

No actually in the step of the training that I`m in I havent finished my site nor got signed to n affiliate program. I suppose I`m a bit ahead within the steps here going through "The Customer Purchase Lifecycle" at this point.

Hello,
In the decision phase, it is said that:
''Sometimes people are looking for negative reviews and you can also leverage these as there are many "debunk" products out there, in almost any market. ''
How can I do it? Do I put on my site bad items?
Thank you.

Not really. If you know a product is really a SCAM you can write reviews about the product, why it is bad and why you recommend not to buy such product. As long as your reviews are based on solid research, you are actually helping others not to fall into some bad marketers' trap.

A very informative lesson on the stages that a prospect goes through before purchasing. I have a question concerning communicating or connecting with the prospect, is it the place of us the affiliates to get the prospects info? For example getting their email addresses. Or should we give them a way to contact us?

Here is my .02. Initially, it's important to build your site content and focus on content creation to build your traffic. At this stage, a simple 'contact us' button, rather than a full-on email capture system is preferable.

Once you have about 100 posts and/or 1k visitors per month, then you can invest the time/energy into setting up an email capture system and begin to email your customers.

Content creation is so important, yet many new marketers get caught up in doing things that are of no benefit to them if they don't have traffic.

Kyle is correct. Knowing your audience is key to product promotion. An audience that is concerned about health probably would not appreciate seeing a product review on sports cars.

Also, people are tired of scams and get rich quick schemes. This is my main reason for signing up with Wealthy Affiliate. Searching he WEB is how I found this platform; so, I started as a customer with a pressing need. In the beginning, my understanding of passive income was not clear. Now, I am aware that it takes awhile to get paid. Building a website, training, being indexed and ranked are part of the process. Each day, I am inspired to continue onthis proven path of success.

Will Kyle this sure has been informative. I can see where this is the place to get the information from sure have given and gotten a lot of good advice. Now I have to go and see just what and How I want to get things going here a lot better get some more keywords going and try and figure out how to get the sites on my website like Amazon and other place to send people to to check out where to buy the same thing I am advertising.

Thanks, Kyle. As always, this is "good stuff"! It does help with looking for particular and valuable keywords. It takes just as much effort to promote these as it does to promote random keywords. We might as well target those that reflect people who are farther along in their decision making.

I can see how the Customer Purchase Lifecycle works through how I shop. I'm not a person that really loves to shop a lot. But I do go through the different phases of research. I notice that I prefer doing most of my shopping online. About the only shopping I do anymore at physical stores is because of groceries, and that seems to be waning with me as well.
I do see myself in all of these lessons. Reverse Engineering that really is good advice.
Thank you :)

Just a brief comment about YouTube, I use it for most research. And, I always refer others to do the same. Why, because it is rich with reviews (biased or not) and history. I think it's a major tool for getting to folks who are are in the final purchasing decision phases.

Hmmm; it sounds kinda' like trying to make a friend; It never seems to work for me to jus' go up an' tap someone on the shoulder an' tell 'em how lucky they are 'cause I've suddenly decided to be their friend. Haha

Go figure, eh?

But if I take the time to get to know someone an' learn a little bit about 'em, before deciding whether or not we could get along as friends, well... that friendship does step out on a little better foot.

In building a relationship with your customer how would you include bonuses: newsletters, free gifts on your website. Do you have to keep an inventory? or publish newsletters? how do you collect emails?

I am on LEVEL 2 of the training so if this question is covered in future training videos then disregard the question.

In order to collect email addresses you need to use an email provider service like AWeber for example, which will allow you to created automated pre-defined email series sent to every single subscriber in a given chronological order defined by you

And yes, the free bonuses (whatever they are) will help you to generate certain desired actions like social sharing, subscription, etc

You mentioned comparison buying... If I'm working with Amazon and two other art supply links would be it be better to review say the types of a certain paint with prices from each source or the exact same item that in love and can give access great v review to with the v prices from all the sources... Or are the comparisonsv just a badc idea overall?

The last thing that I actually purchased online was the Wealthy Affiliate course and I can tell you that I did a large amount of research before that purchase. I really like the advice of "You are a customer...use that knowledge". I think that simple phrase is invaluable advice.

Kyle, The customer life cycle was an interesting read. From my experience in the business world a Customer life cycle is very similar to Product life cycles. One needs to follow closely where the product is within its own life cycle. As product life cycle nears and/or comes to an end, we need to follow closely as you can expect a drop off of customers...only natural. So, bring on the next generation of product people would be interested in buying. Best Regards, George

I can't seem to reach anybody to buy the products at all .i have about 5 products reviews and a few blogs relating to my niche on my .i have been doing what i am learning here for about 3 months .Am i missing something ? HELP PLEASE !!!!!

I think maybe the domain may have something to do with it. health production market seems to indicate that you are producing something like a farmer. Are you checking Google Analytics to see who is visiting your site. Other than that I cannot help you. Your website has to reflect what you are doing. For instance my website which is an anti-ageing site indicates that I am selling or promoting anti-ageing products so people interested in anti-ageing products are going to look at the site.
Hope that helps
Carol

I am enjoying this training very well especially a Customer Purchase Lifecycle topic, though I do have one question. I may be wrong, but my thinking of the way this affiliate marketing work is, you have no control over who will visit your website and then go on to buy the items right? Isn't it your website just there to promote some products, whereas the actual transactions happening out in some different premises? If that is so, then how could you know who this existing customer and let alone to get in touch with them?

As you go through the training, this will become more clear why and how this works. No, you don't just have a website and have products on it.

Instead, you're going to be writing articles about things in your niche and as you're writing about your niche, you will then recommend products to your audience that would help them.

This is why the training will tell you to write about something that will help your audience to solve something or figure out something.

The training will teach you to also write about product reviews where you can recommend two products and why one is better than another... people who are reading reviews like these are in the buying stage and so if you had a page like that, they will likely to buy from you if you have strong arguments for the points you talk about in your post.

They will more likely to click on your links when they can see you know what you're talking about and can help them solve what they need.

Your website is the bridge between the customer and the merchant. You are connecting the customers who are searching for the right products to help them solve a certain problem and your job is connecting these people to the right products and sending them off to the right merchants to buy those products that will help them with what they need to solve.

I hope this helps you understand a bit more how the process works but it's not a shop you're building here.

This is about talking about various things in your niche that will help your audience in some way and at the same time recommending them products that will help them too. This creates trust and you're not directly selling per se, but rather more of a hey check this out if you want to cure your smelly feet and here are the reasons why I think this one product does the job... and then you list your reasons.

And then you would close that article to tell them to check out that product at http://Amazon.com (for example) and that text will be an affiliate link you get from you applying for the Amazon affiliate program.

I know this all may not make sense to you but you will understand more as the training progresses.

Awesome post Grace!
After reading your reply above it is very clear why and how you and so many others here at WA (including Kyle and Carson!) are so successful.
Thank you so much for taking the time to compose such a thorough explanation - it's as if "explaining things" was your niche!

I had heard of some of this when I first joined WA and was very "green" at internet marketing. Many of these ideas seem much more familiar now. That said, I am still learning much more on this pass through the training. Also, the training is revised. Great job on improvements.

this is helping greatly and I know as I approach creating my second post, it can and will get better as I move through the process understanding this customer purchase flow and applying that to my keyword selection and i start to strengthen my ability to catch them at the best time!!!

Thank you Kyle!!!! The training is helping me a lot, thank you for the clear and gentle way you speak in your lessons along with screen demo's so it makes my navigating the WA site better and better as you step by step help me build some momentum with this snow ball. :)

My niche is classic football team shirts (domain name: footballteamshirts.com) as I have always loved football and decided on a subset niche (in this case football team shirts).

I can write about football related topics all day long with some research, no problem, but I can't specifically write about shirts themselves as I am not a fashion guru and plus my customers will search for their team kits they want to buy more out of loyalty to their teams than anything else.

Big teams like Liverpool, Man Utd, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich etc will likely be the most popular shirts sold I imagine for obvious reasons.

In my first 2 articles, I have wrote about the current 2018 World Cup in Russia and linked in a few keywords namely "classic football shirts" and "Old Classic Football Shirts".

My vision is to sign up to several affiliate programs and promote their football shirts through my website. Will my general football articles work to attract customers this way?

I am just about to start the adding visuals to my site mid way through Phase 2!

There's no need to be a fashion guru to review the quality and look of a shirt. Sure, you can write an article about general football and then segue into cool shirts available for different teams, but you can also write articles based around cool shirts you've found online and the best deals for them.

My niche is personal development. When I have purchased products in this niche, I usually start by getting on someone's email list in exchange for reader magnet (usually a free ebook). It's usually not until I've gotten a few emails from this person and attended a free webinar that I purchase a product. So yes, I understand why everyone's always saying to start an email list!

I think I pretty muck know my customers that would log onto Dosney With Kids. I am a long time Disney fan of all things Disney and I grew up going to Dosney and watching it change over the years. The hard part for me will be to actually market something. In this case it shuold go although with a lot of work. I think my site is one that covers all three area so hopefully, if I do my job right, I will get them when they first start out and have them through purchases which should make for repeat customers... I hope.

I have a few weeks off school. I have not had a chance to work my nitch which is very broad and I can continually keep adding to it all the time because students are needing everything from clothes to apps, from discounted car insurance to discount airfare. I need to narrow down to sections than nitches from those sections

The Customer Purchase Lifecycle to me is the core of Marketing. There are a lot to absorb and retain. For me, I know it is going to take time to get it all down packed. So off to study again, because, there's more to just reading it, I need to know it, and then apply it!

I realise that we have to create traffic but at this point I don't have much to offer in the way of content. I would like to create a few posts, that cover at least some of what I want to share, before having regular people see it.
I don't want them to come across my website, hopefully start to get interested in what I'm working on. Then for them to be disappointed and annoyed that there is no real content to follow, after my introductory stuff.
Is there a way to set a few things up before putting the website out there or would that be more detrimental to my progress ?

I have heard about people writing out a lot of content before making their website (like 40 or 50 posts) with success. You can write some posts in your wordpress site and save the draft without publishing it. Then you can publish when you are ready.

However, for me, the traffic did not come quickly so I do not think that people will be too annoyed by the small site. I think that one of the best things that you can do for user experience is to make sure that your post addresses your keyword thoroughly. Answer the who, what, when, where, why, and how.

There's not really any reason to delay putting your content out there. The sooner you get content on your website, the sooner you get it indexed in search results, and the sooner search engines start believing you are for real.

And the real kicker is that unless you're personally inviting people to your website, it's likely that you'll have plenty of post up by the time people start finding you.

Generally speaking, it is detrimental to your progress to wait! Put it out there so people can see what you have on your mind!

Since you have gotten this far it would mean that you have at least 5 posts on your site with beautiful pictures, if you followed directions exactly.

That's a good start I think and as you continue there will be added opportunity to add more content. To complete the first lesson of this level you are supposed to add another post/page. So that will take you to 6.

This will ensure that your visitors have a lot to read/look at when they visit your site and wont be disappointed.

I don't think that it's an issue if you go ahead and launch your site. You can collect emails and get subscribers in the meantime - if they want more content, they can subscribe and be notified when you add more to your site. Traffic takes a while to build up and if you go ahead and post, you'll get indexed on Google. My site was indexed in about 2 or 3 days. I only had 2 posts at the time. I'm still working on my site as we speak.

Yeh I understand all that and I've published 2 posts (without pics.)
I have been indexed on Google but I'm worried that anybody coming across my site might take one look and be put off by its very basic setup and layout.

Put away the worry Lestrow and make sure that your content is what it should be. Pictures should enhance your posts and content but they should not be your content. Most if not all of us started out by posting without pics.

Thanks Kyle. It really helps me to see this as a multi-step process so I have more clarity and awareness of what works at each stage. Also helps me remain patient through the process, understanding that it can take time to build relationships and gain trust.

You've focused on a product-based niche. Would there be any differences for a service-based niche, like coaching?

I didn't know that. THANK YOU FOR BEING SO DETAILED. My niche is helping people get into online businesses. This is why I have chosen Wealthy Affiliates. It has taken 8 months with some failed attempts trying other companies only to find out that the only thing they focus on is how much money they can get from me ( 1 was $30,000) I was a newbie. I did't fork over anything. just canceled learned what not to do. kept looking wondering if I would ever find an opportunity that fit me. Thank you for putting together such a great opportunity for everyone. This has shown me your integrity as a person and as entrepreneur .I;m sure we will meet some day so I can thank you personally.
Kindness and Love
Raymond Shaw

So now the real part begins! I usually catch on quickly, but I am definitely a people person, but a Sales Person not so much. I think it's just because I've been a Teacher, but I was a Technology Teacher that travelled from school to school for a HUGE school board teaching technology to the classes. Now that I think about my role as a whole; I was selling my method of teaching, so the Teacher would continue using the software that I had taught his/her Students.

I guess I never really thought about my job that way before, but I was in fact selling the software that I was teaching at the schools??

Wow, you are the best! I trust your answer every time. It's that intuition part of me. That's how I was given so many awards as a Teacher.

Every single class I taught, at least 1 thing was different (but usually several), and I had to break everything down on the fly, without anyone actually noticing.

I often did this through humour!

I found that if you're able to make the worst-of-the-worst
Student(s) laugh, I almost always could get them to engage in my lesson.

You are likely going to laugh, but most of the Staff throughout the School Board that I unfortunately had to retire from, due to a serious leg injury, actually nicknamed me "The Child Whisperer!"
Not a word of a lie! Just thought that I'd share that with you, as you've been very helpful answering my questions along the way.

Sounds like you have a very clear understanding of this method now! By helping and teaching others we are indirectly selling a solution to a problem. There is a lot of money to be made from utilising this method.

Thank-you VERY MUCH for your kind words of wisdom Andrew! I am definitely beginning to see the bigger picture here.

I was a Computer Engineering Graduate, and have a Teaching Degree as well. In Comp Engineering, I was a Networking Major, with a minor in Psychology.

I am thinking of this whole entire process as the beginning design of a Computer Network. It's like I'm beginning to design a Top-to-Bottom Flowchart. You start from the big picture and branch it out/down from there, connecting everything to the main goal at the same time.

I might not be a Marketing Person, or a Sales Person directly, but I understand the process of breaking things down to what will be the most effective method to gain your audience/sales sort-a-speak.

I'm using my transferrable skills to help me to understand this entire concept. I will say, that Kyle and Carson have designed a beautiful platform, that has been simplified for any User, and that was likely an extremely tough process; but I've done my research, and if I had to rate WA; it would be a 10/10!

Having read the training, I felt good that I in some way was leaning on showing my visitors that my website was created with them in mind. You have given a more in depth explanation as to why I should write my content a certain way.

Thank you for putting me up to speed so that I could understand a little better about how to be more efficient as an affiliate marketer.

May your blessings continue to make this world better, an affiliate at a time.

This article/training has eased the impulsive and radical feeling of wanting to go out and just sell to people. It is interesting in that we forget so often how everything involving a purchase, involves a person behind it. We are all people and wanted to be treated as such.
There are times when it actually hurts to know that you were just a transaction.
I hope all of us here at WA can make anyone they sell to, feel like they were more important than their pocketbook.

wow... i can totally relate to that purchase lifecycle... And that sample of how customers may have found WA, that was me, lol... Analysis of customer's behavior is amazing.
It probably was easier then to sell with just the television technology compared to the internet age now... seems to be more people takes more time in purchasing decision as we could do own little research before deciding. cool!

Well this is an eye opener for me Kyle. It clarifies so much that I was confused abou concerning why I couldn't make a sale before. I know that I will have to revisit this lesson as I get further along in maximizing my site. This is so relevant, including the last phase about making a one time buyer into a lifetime customer. Thank you.

I really enjoyed this training; Lots of info that I will definitely be going over again. I have a question about the 2nd task. Are we supposed to be creating a new page/post targeting keywords from one of the 3 phases of the Customer Purchasing Life cycle? Targeting brand name keywords or reviews or scams? If so, I'm still not sure as to go about it. Thanks in advance.

O.K., This is going to be an ignorant question but here goes: You are only talking about products and brands having to do with our own niches, right? Not just random ads or infomercials we see? The reason I ask is because I have just recently been in the market for a new washing machine and have been researching them online.
Now it seems when I go to research stuff for my website posts, or anything else for that matter, an ad for a washing machine pops up! It's kind of a turn-off for me. Are you talking about us having those kinds of ads on our sites?

In my opinion the most important step drill to into your head is #2. I have heard it stated many ways, the one I like is. The sale does not begin until after the 7th no. And, of course those No's are in the methods described. Many salespeople give up after the 1st or even make it to the 3rd or 4th and then give up. Remember #2 and then apply all the other facts and we are on our way to making money.

Yeah, and it is my belief that this can be sped up drastically by targeting people at different stages in their customer lifecycle.

People that are further along in their lifecycle, take much less work than someone that is coming to you in a broad way, and you are trying to introduce something to them that may not be all that relevant.

From personal experience I can definitely say that this is true. I was super motivated by a $2,000 course on how to sell t-shirts, and I almost dropped all that money (that I don't have!) on it because the sales pitch was so good.

But then I decided to do my research comparing the best online schools - guess what, I found WA after reading several blog posts over three days that compared and rated the quality of online learning platforms for Internet marketing campuses, and signed up for WA the same day!

Damn Great Content As Always ever lesson I'm getting better and better out of all the programs I invested in nobody gives Value like WA and great tools and knowledge I truly believe if I keep learning and taking action here I will be extremely successful thank you so much and I really don't remember how I found you guys but I'm glad I did

So here what I'm understanding so far correct me if I'm wrong but from here on out I should mainly focus on using keywords related to a buying phase for example my niche is Pc gaming wether its video games or gaming pc hardware or gear so when I'm creating content I should be creating content around a buying phase customer like this "EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Review" talk about the pro's and con's give alot great content and info about the product and while doing that have another similar product to compare it too and talk about the pros and cons of that product just to give them a alternative anything I'm missing so far?

If I were in your niche I would invite the potentia lcustomer to tell me where he is in the marketplace. I took a job selling high end RVS. Rather than sell them I chose to share the opportunity to see the quality of different levels only allow me to listen to what they had to say. My place of employment had twenty long time salesmen with long list of customers. The first year my sales ranked me tied for third or fourth with twenty plus years experience. My customers bought what they wanted base up on the views they shared with me. As we walked through the vehicles. They shared with me the idea of what they were ready to spend with out knowing value or quality what they were thinking about. Most had sold expensive homes to replace with RVs. They were looking for quality so I took them to the highest quality on lot and let them tell me what they liked fifth wheel or motor home. By just letting them keep talking purchase was made. This allowed me to provide thirty-five percent top of the line units sold by the company. For two years my customers purchased over thirty-five percent of quality coaches. Most brought me paying customers. Make it easy for them to purchase what they want.

I’m sure Kyle will answer too but in the meantime, for your first question. People can stay up to date either by subscribing to a email newsletter or subscribing to a RSS feed of your blog, they get notified when you post. Try searching for a plugin for this. I use Mail chimp for my email newsletters

Great training Kyle, I learned A LOT! I see the applicability of this. I'll tell you my answers on what sold me on WA and they are very much in line with what you said in the training. 1. I trusted it, 2. It seemed like a great investment, 3. I committed to it, 4. It was relevant to what I was doing. When I wrote down that last one, the light bulb went off and what you said came around in full circle. If I could identify the customer's problem/wants/needs/desires and articulate how the product that I am selling is the most effective solution to those problems/wants/needs/desires, then that is the key to the close. You read a lot of Grant Cardone prior to making this training didn't you?! What you both said about the selling process directly lined up with each other! Thank you very much.

I think, at least for me, the longest time is the first time you sell to a customer. When they make that purchase, then they have done their homework on you as well as your products. Building a relationship and trust takes time. But then they become repeat customers.

Also my Golden Rule of selling, always sell them something that will help them solve a challenge they have, ie sell the cleaner for a dirty car, Not wax.

I
When they know you truly care about them and their needs, they spread the word and come back.

Yes, I have seen the 7 times remark over and over in various ways. I have seen the sale does not begin until after the 7th NO, Kind of the same thing. The issue is most people give up before then. Go news about the internet, we don't have to keep knocking on the door or dialing the phone!! And, I check reviews before I buy, especially on Amazon.

Very interesting,I have three children all collage grads ,they buy a lot on the internet, I have noticed that they always check reviews , then buy.I my self am a little different , when I buy I always know just what I want and if they have it I buy

I don't seem to properly understand when and where along the line to begin to apply the principles discussed here. For example, I have just started a site and at the moment I have only one post on it aside the about me post. When do I begin to apply this principles to my contents?
Sorry that I am sounding so ignorant here.

Hi ReginaO1,
Are you in the process of completing the Online Entrepreneur Certification course? Online Entrepreneur Certification - Getting Started Level 1 The course has a lot of opportunities where you are required to write a new blog post. You apply the principles being taught as you go. It takes practice to get used to the whole routine of researching keywords, creating content, and publishing, but you need to have an understanding how to do it and why you need to do it first. If you feel lost, perhaps it's a good idea to go back to the course.

Thanks for this lesson, Kyle. I found it really useful to consider how different phases of a customer's buying mindset effect the keywords that I should target.

By sheer chance the website I started writing content for this week features reviews. Within a couple of days I've already had engagement of around 600 on twitter - just for two review posts. This is higher than anything I've ever posted on Twitter.

This has already translated to 10 click throughs to Amazon. No purchases yet but I'm thrilled that in two days I've already had 10 click-throughs to my target market platform.

This lesson has helped me to understand WHY that happened - and has given me some ideas of new keywords to try for my next two reviews as a form of A/B split testing against the first two review posts.

I have found this lesson(now seeing it a second time.) very helpful as I also have never been involved in any form of commercial/selling post in the past. I can fully empathise with SimonKE 's message below here. Although, I feels very strange and challenging seeking to develop a positive/trusting relationship with a customer on line rather than doing it face to face as you would in store/shop it makes perfect sense and hopefully both participants gain from the experience. Moving on....!

As I work my way through the training, and implement what I learn, I find myself going through a range of thought and emotions that I believe every entrepreneur experiences as they evolve. These thoughts and emotions have nearly taken me out many times. I wonder if it reflects in my writing and scares people away, or if they are following to be sure what I say is true. I have never been a sales guy and I am turned off by overly hyped and promoted products and even more irritated by spam on social media than in my email inbox, so this is the last thing I would ever want to do. I hope my attempt to prove sincerity is not mistaken for desperation to gain trust.

I understand completely... as i go through the training my thoughts are always doubling back to figure out how to sell and how to promote and how to get buyers without doing "the sell" in the way that i personally hate having done to me...

Great content: especially analyzing your own buying habits. I've done the exact same thing before joining programs in the past.
Hasn't always worked mind, as most have gone down the Swanny River. such as: M.F.I., Carbon Copy Marketing and Empower Network. But it does go to show that most people do their own research before purchasing.

Knowing all these steps of Customer live style is a great capital.
I can attract your attention on two points of view without any comment:
I describe the Client the client on line as a ''Virtual Client'', comparatively to that one into a geographic grocery, who is a "Real client" and full of emotions.
This prototype of Real Client is inspiring sometimes the virtual one.

Types of products play a remarkable role in quickening the Customer' s decision to purchase, due to that a product is to be kept indoor or outdoor.
Ex. A Bed and Bike.

This question and answer is one that is yours to provide. What is your goal? What is the product or service that you are passionately trying to build a business around? From that begin your research in the keyword tool to help you construct your posts and blogs.

Is it not appearing simplistic by the academic breakdown of the stages!? Are you suggesting that the articles and content writing are aimed at gaining attention of persons who come through your website, your blogs on fb and other social media sites? It will mean that more work must be done to get the quality people who may come again to possibly buy.
More work ahead!!!

Yeah. Understanding individually the Client is obtaining the market key.
There is a want always associated to the product. It might be a product for indispensable need or for leisure.
The product scarcity attract the Client at the most.
A more known product like the newest one are carrying a intrinsic value.
So the seller has cards to play efficiently.

The Customer Purchase Lifecycle is excellent training information Kyle. I feel armed and a little closer to being ready to earn money. However, I have no doubt that I still need more information and knowledge to be successful. So I anxiously move forward one step at a time taking it all in.

Thanks to you and the WA community I am feeling much more enthusiastic about my goals in affiliate marketing.

Hey Kyle,
I appreciate your timely post. As most of us just starting out, it behooves all of us to have a complete understanding of the
correct procedures and use proven methods to be able to
make ourselves profitable if we decide to sell online. It seems
to be a completely different ballgame than buying in person in a
store.

My son is a firefighter...a captain. He will probably buy your boots if you show him how a firefighter might find them superior to the ones he already wears. Is there a special aspect about your boots that make them more durable, heat resistant, safer?

Just to clarify, I don't own the boots myself. I was going to be producing relevant content and affiliate links to the top quality boots that I have seen to be the best throughout my career, based on a very large and busy professional fire department.

Names feel wierd to select.... like youre pinning yourself down to something you havent really confirmed in youre own head yet.
I think a lot of us go through the same... we are all learning as we go.
I wish you well fireman!

As long as you are honestly sharing your opinion, and doing your best to be unbiased, there is nothing at all wrong with posting a review that is either positive or negative. Just tell it like you see it.

This is exactly what people want to see. Honest reviews from real people. And this is what will lead to a lot of your success as an affiliate.

There's nothing wrong with sharing existing content on your site, it's a good thing if your audience finds it valuable. However, if you are trying to rank that particular page in Google, then you will want to add plenty of unique content on the page as well. Because Google wants to rank unique content, not duplicate content.

Also, if you are copying something word for word, then best practice is to cite the source of the info. So just pop a link in the page that shows people where you got the recipe from. There is a reasonable boundary here though. If the content you are producing is unique and it's the result of many sites/ experience you've learned from (which in most cases it will be), then you obviously don't need to create a full reference list in your article. That's over the top.

So to sum it up... share the recipe on your site either way. But if you want that page to rank on Google, be sure to include plenty of unique content. And consider citing the source of your copied recipe with a link or mention.

I'm finally through the reading of the customer Purchase Lifecycle. I had been taught most of these tactics through my AWeber account. It took me a while to get through it because it was a lot of repeat for me.. LOL I found myself getting sleepy a lot I didn't feel bored, but definitely would of went faster with a video for me. LOL Reading anything more than a couple pages even highly interesting new stuff just puts me to sleep. Don't know why,
maybe it is the bifocals cause I have to look down all the time. LOL
I just get up and down, walk around, drink lots of coffee. Anyone got any suggestions on what to do for getting sleepy while they read, please let me know? This is a on going problem for me for a few years now.

I usually take a break and close my eyes tight as hard as possible for a few seconds and a few times and that makes my eyes rest and if still feel sleepy I try leaving them close as if taking a five to ten minute nap that always refreshes me.

Having just read the Customer Purchase Lifecycle for the 2nd time I am now beginning to make sense of this important marketing skill. Will be aiming to self-analyse my next few on line purchasing items soon and try to make myself more aware of this process to build a powerful but honest based internet business.

Since my main business has been helping people through the process of selecting and evaluating franchises to decide if a certain franchise is a fit, I am used to a very long sales cycle and building a relationship with my candidates.

When I first found WA 2 years ago, I was looking for something that I could do that would complement my franchise brokerage and generate some steady income in between franchise placement fees.

At the time, I thought I needed to have some kind of product of my own to sell, so I didn't spend anymore time with WA. Over the last couple of years I learned some things that brought me full circle.

Buying franchise leads is expensive and typically only 1% will qualify and become a franchise owner. 99 people out of 100 I help determine are not ready or financially qualified to own a franchise, and until now I did not have an alternative solution.

My plan is to educate people in all aspects of business ownership through my site and gain credibility as an expert in what it takes to become a business owner and what business makes sense based on skills goals and budget.

Since people spend time researching everything, they will see that the information in my articles is true and correct and they will trust talking with me when they are ready to have someone walk them through the process of finding a franchise. By the time I have a conversation with them, they are ready to talk and want to talk with me rather than calling a cold lead that cost me $55.00

For the people that have been scammed or determine a franchise is not right but really want to change their lives by becoming self employed, and are ready and willing to do the work, they will gain my trust because I am not selling the false dream of overnight riches. They will trust me because everything I tell about starting any business is true. So only the people that understand how hard it will be, the time required and are willing to do what it takes will become students and there should be a higher rate of success because they know what they are getting into before starting.

I have a few different ideal candidates and this strategy will be slow to build, but will build a very solid business in time.

Thank you Kyle and Carson for building a place for the willing to learn and build real and sustainable businesses.

I created a niche based on my passion, I loved to communicate with people, to help people to find a solution for their problems, through my blogs, I write only one blog a week, I know it is not enough to get people coming to my website, but I am working on that. To read a second time, the customer purchase lifecycle, help me to have a better understanding, and probably to be able to fully understand who's my audience.
Thank you so much, Kyle.
Jacqueline

I'm so glad I went through this again. Reading it a second time helped me grasp a better understanding of the purchasing cycle and what keywords we should use for the last 2 phases of their research. I do a question though. Would you think it is a good idea to diversify in your blog so that you're getting people at all phases and creating relationships with them?

For the content you create, it's always a good idea I think to diversify like you said. You can have certain posts where you focus on a keyword that would attract your audience at one point of the customer lifecycle, and then have others where you focus on catching them at another point. I think this would also keep your content fresh and varied.

Then as you progress you could always end up seeing which ones work the best and concentrate in that area as well.

Hi Kyle , thank you so much for detailed information. This is the back bone and crucial mechanism for successful business or marketing online and I know that's why many entrepreneurs love WEALTHY AFFILIATE. I've read more reviews about WA programs before I joined and that it is true that this basic stuffs you're teaching is tremendous for those serious online business entrepreneurs.

Great job well done! Keep up the good work Kyle and Carson and the team...

I really appreciate your insight. You explaining all of this helps me to believe that you have our best interests in mind. I really wish I had more free time to apply to my progress here at Wealthy Affiliate. I'm anxious to get my sites available to customers. I know that you will guide us in accurately making a site that will truly bring us commissions. Thank you. Once I get my first one running, I'm going to jump in to my second one.

This lesson really opened my eyes. I can't wait to put what I've learned into action. This makes absolute common sense when I put myself in the customer's place. Imagine the time and money this will save you when targeting your potential customers.

I believe most of us mistakenly think we know what the customer wants, but never had a clue to begin with.

This is so true.
I have written several books. One of which helps households reduce their expenditure by up to 30%. Virtually every single household in the UK would benefit from this book but that is the problem, the market is too vast to economically advertise the book and defining different niches is proving difficult. It's like having a winning lottery ticket and not being able to claim it.

Sounds like an interesting book, people don't like so much the idea of trying to "save" as it sounds like work, but "household hack your way to wealth".

Positive income, which is also the sister to saving, seems to draw in a larger audience and I think you will have much more success getting reach with your book and having people adopt it if they took that approach.

Hi, I want to get some of advice from you guys. I realized that why I don't want to write more or finish more tasks for my website. Because I chose a niche I am not really have passion on it. Should I go on use my website that I have paid to finish training, then start a new website with a niche that I have passion on it? or just give up, change a niche and build a new website now to start over again?

Hi there. I ran into the same thing when I started and I just put my first site on hold and created a new one. Now that my new one is going well I am slowly bringing the old one back to life too as I did make some money from it in the beginning. But I only publish like 1 article a week for the old one now just to keep it going for now. Just what I did in this situation.

I personally would recommend that if you are not impassioned by what you are doing, that you don't invest too much time in it. Move into a direction (and niche) that does get you excited to write, to communicate, to research and to help others.

That would be my suggestion. It will lead you in the appropriate direction to building a full time and sustainable business!

As you rightly point out Kyle, customers have better access to information these days but in a way it is information overload with so many opinions who do you trust?
I can read many reviews on one product, take a look at the rather biased views of the manufacturers site and end up basing my purchasing decisions on real world reviews and personal experience with a brand.
Trust is a huge factor in who and where I frequent when making purchasing decisions and it annoys the hell out of my wife when she wants a quick purchasing decision to be made.
I bide my time and research carefully and normally end up being a client rather than a customer (transient traffic) because they have then earned my trust and tend to be reliable in most cases.
You can sell to anyone you dont have to know them as long as you know what folks are looking for within your niche. Communicate your passion and be realistic not pushy, this is what I employ to build trust. Im not saying they absolutely have to buy it on my say so, merely here are my thoughts and I hope you now have enough information to make that important informed decision.

You trust the opinion that you can relate to and that helps you, and that connect with you on a personal level. Think of the people that you trust? Why do you trust them? What characteristics. etc.

I think you will find it amazing as you build out content on your site and start to get interaction just how much trust and excitement you can create simply by putting PEOPLE first. If you do that, making recommendations (that generate your revenue, and benefit the customer) come much easier.

You have to sell yourself before your product. Cliche but still holds strong. My writing style may not be to everyone's taste but I am who I am and hopefully project the best of myself or at least I try to. As I build up more content I know I will encourage interaction with more people. I promised myself a few years ago to dispel negativity out of my life and surround myself with positive people. The days of "I can't" are forever dead to me. Thanks to you and WA and all who I have interacted with thus far it's been a total "CAN DO" approach.

So the bottom line is you can only sell to people you know or know you. This takes time. I'm looking for miniature trains and cars and trucks. So I have to go months trying to get these people to trust me to buy from me. Don't think so. I search the net, I go from shop to shop until i find what I'm looking for. He either has it ir he don't. If he has what I want I will probably return to him.

I try to be an informed and cautious online buyer, I do research before hand on all my purchases. I only go to "big" name online stores Amazon, eBay, Walmart as examples. It will be interesting to see how traffic is funneled to my little guy website. Every good material.

I was thinking about how I make a decision to buy online in regards to what this lesson states. And its true for me that I do my research first to find out if the product is what will work for me. A big player for me is customer reviews, if a product has mediocre reviews I will pass it by.

This opens my eyes to the use of key words and finding the right time to find the right customer. I do car sales and I see the online method is close to the same as knowing when the customer is in the buying stage. Thank you for this information!

I really enjoyed this teaching Kyle you are so right everything you are saying I didn't trust because I have been scammed, I am here to learn and make money so I am going to go with the flow.I am going to go by the blueprint that by every teaching you have laid out thank Kyle, love you, Kyle, I told you I am going to be a millionaire with love to you and family.elvira

You got me thinking Kyle because I was one of those who fit the category of "thinking they know their customers". It is a lot more deeper than I thought. This lesson has even put me in a position to revise my business strategy but I'm grateful.

In understanding the values of a potential customer by his buying process < I find the material here > eye=opening and an invaluable concept in creating my website.
I smile at my own process of researching, learning and decision
making... realizing there are a lot more cynics out here, like me, and thereby do not feel so all alone... lol

We all do research, and we all make purchases. Sometimes we forget that we are doing is helping others do the same as we get lost in the process. If we can step back and put ourselves in a customers shoes, is going to make the sales process that much easier and you are good to be able to sell people through helping (versus a hard sales pitch).

If you can help people, and you build trust, and what you have trust recommendations come very efficiently.

That sign spiked a thought in my mind of caring for the customer, letting them know, say "hey" please leave me know how that product works so i can write a review on my blog about it , maybe not mentioning their name, that's up to them, but , let them know we will be ready to send them another shipment what they are ready, because we are concerned that they start getting the results they been after for so long! I call it the "care package" idea

I thought i'd post this as an idea in the search engines lets word stuff a little different as the product " new interesting review" not the same old key wording then when folks hunt for a different key word, they find it way at the bottom, because it had not been "found" yet, it would be a new discovery and end up on top!!?

To be honest I don't think it will end up on top (at least not for awhile) The more a keyword is searched the better for the search engines. However, you can play around with both....mix both in your content. What do you have to lose? I need more people to click on my banner ads for google adsense and more traffic. I'm getting some traffic but need more banner ad clicks to make money there.

Yah Know what, this is nice, but , the brand is good, however, everyday there is a brand that is trying to take the internet by storm, if a new brand came out that exposes the qualities they have that is way better than the brand thats been out there for years, whoa!! Guess what, if they don't do as we are being trained to do,. interesting stuff Kyle , makes us all think how much better we need to do some tweaking maybe?

that's it!!!!!!! yes, man I have some work to do , this spiked my thoughts of what I need to do, if we all want to sell effectively
we got to know the product inside and out so we can be effective in our offering what we have to whomever,. Now this may seem a bit of a no brainer so some, but hey a simple thing as a rubber band still needs to be understood each of them have different elasticities, or will stretch further and take more wear and abuse that others, I don't know crap about them, but they have to be the same field as tires, how will they wear. thanks Kyle!!

Right. I'm glad I came back here. After answering 1 message....it said completed but I see you left me 5 messages or so. I could of missed these if I did not check myself. So if I don't answer you will know why now...I didn't see them.

Excellent , they want to know the in's and out's of this product, I try offering them how I would buy so to speak, the big statement here is exactly what are you after, and how long might you want it to last, as well as will it do the job I need it to do how |I need it done, as the product I am promoting is eating up the internet by storm besides the bitcoin.

this is what Im after, if IU can reach those people who are searching for what I have , I believe this is part of the funnel , no sense in just throwing my site out there, well second thought it has to be thrown out there, to the masses and let the groups pick at it what they are looking foir but I rather find a specific area or group, if I'm thinking right on this, but then isn't everyone else? So that my question.

Right, what you are referring to is called a "Niche" that is something YOU are passionate about and your target audience (and customers) are also interested. I'm a little over the place with my domain name because I have the PLUS in it so I add other content besides Digital Products...Although it's mainly about digital products. I hope this all makes sense? Also, Did you find out when your next billing date is?I think it's on the 11th which is tomorrow and I believe mine is too.

Great information in understanding the customer. My main difficulty is in the research phase. How do I create trust? Should my blog be linked to my personal Facebook account? I would prefer to keep my social media accounts for business separate but still want to be genuine? How is this done?

Trust will come as your website visitors get to know you by visiting your website often. Building an email list is something that would be beneficial in this area. Also building up your social media accounts is another way to suck in traffic to your site. When people know like and trust you, they buy. But obviously, this takes time for anyone to achieve.

It's indeed very similar to offline business, and personal relationships. Just be yourself, be honest and up front. You'll make friends that way.

:)

Yes, many people do like to keep their personal social media and business social media accounts separate. It's a good idea.

When naming your social media accounts, try to make them match.

e.g. if you set up a Youtube channel, Instagram, Google +, Twitter, Pinterest, give them all the same name. This is branding.

However, don't try to do this all at once, you'll get overwhelmed. Choose one you like most, learn it as you go, grow your audience by providing value for free. Teach them things. Show them things. Tell them about your experiences with things.

:)

Hope this helps.

Remember not to try and master everything all at once, pick one thing and get stuck in to it. Personally I like Instagram for traffic. I have a youtube channel but not too many subscribers because I don't often publish videos. I don't use google plus much (don't really know how, yet, lol).

Great insight here. It took me 3 years before I decided to purchase the WA membership after initially joining as a free member for a week in 2015. Maybe I'm out outlier :). It was always in the back of my mind, and finally I took the Black Friday deal after seeing it role through 2 years in a row. Hopefully other customers aren't like me taking so long to decide to make the purchase :)

I get the concept of customer comprehension, but how do you attract them to even offer them help. I get that concept to about offering the customer free things to establish a relationship. My only concern with this phase is how do we get the customer to start a relationship.

I have spent some time breaking down the process in the most simplistic way possible. Success online is at the core a 4 step process and I have broken them down within this video: How to Create an Online Business - The 4 Steps Broken, down, the process looks like this:

Hi example , I have a web site that involve in drop shipping , How can i write my (About me page contents) as well as (Contact me page contents) , if i want to buy online first of all i check about and contact pages for trust and how long the site have been exist.
So, let assume its a drop shipping , I sales something i did not own online . The company and supplies is at some where , How should i tell my customers my address and location of business in (contact me page) ? How should i tell my customers about me in case of drop shipping in About me?
Waiting your reply kyle.

I feel a sense of accomplishment after publishing my first post of about 1200 words after a fair bit of keyword research and then gathering suitable content to generate traffic. I guess the secret is to repeat this scenario again and again, be patient and keep posting? I am trying to show the prospective customer authoritative content and that my site can be trusted.

Sounds like you are heading in the right direction to me. Congratulations on your first content, now all you have to do is rinse and repeat somewhat consistently. I recall Jay saying in one of his training that content always wins. Once you have content you have something for people to like where if you don't, they can't like it.
All the Best!

Thank you for your comment on my post JG- it is encouraging.
Now I understand with clarity how content always wins- when it is linked to relevant keywords.
Great to know I am now building a solid foundation.
OK...Back To Work for me!
Best regards- frank

You definitely have the right approach, Frank. Once you continue like this, you are sure to gain trust from your visitors and eventually make sales in the process. Always remember to use the low hanging fruit keywords strategy as well: How to Get Keywords Ranked With Low Hanging Fruit All the very best to you with your online business.

Well done Frank, I am starting to learn that this content writing thing, although fun, is an art, and is hard work too! I ‘practiced’ a bit on my established business site and with the use of keywords used in the right way I have managed to get a few ranked articles (very pleasing), so it does work. I really like Yoast (a plug in)which helps me in terms of how to set out an appealing article and with the regular use of keywords, have you tried it? Best of luck with your content writing! Amanda

Jay is Currently doing is three part series on search engine optimization. Go to live training in the sidebar. The first two webinars on the SEO subject are recorded for you to review. He goes into Considerable depth on how to get traffic.

Hi Mark, like you my site is informational/fun - www.englishwordmeanings.com - so I considered what could my audience be interested in and could I sell products related to my content theme? Answer, writing implements, desks, books, paper etc.

There is something that you can recommend or a way to benefit from any niche. If there is no viable commercial intent (which is next to impossible), you can make your website ad driven and generate revenue through Google Adsense or another ad driven compensation model (versus selling products).

If you can help people, you build trust, and you can make relevant product and service recommendations. That is the approach.

Just saw your reply now. Sorry for the delay. My niche is body language. It, to me, is being taken from a more fun approach and angle. I'm using real world scenarios instead of the cold clinical approach.

Thank you. I do feel my niche is helpful. I am enjoying the process. I am still building content and working on being patient. I haven't reached the training to know how to use AdSense yet. I'd rather have a more healthy, established site. I am on Level 3 of the training so I'm sure I'll be learning that soon! Thanks

Fantastic lesson! I'm really starting to get a feel for how affiliate marketing is supposed to work and I like the idea of creating a customer relationship instead of just a one time sale. Until now my focus was more on the beginning of the sales cycle, which is too competitive. Thanks for putting this together!

that's good i'm still trying to get the hang of it all, and i'm starting to understand on how to go approaching it all but I still haven't got to understand on how to download the images down with the pricing and details just yet.

'At this point, they are typically looking for information about golf clubs, and you cannot make an assumptions as to what they are looking for. Perhaps they want to see what a golf club looks like so they can draw it...who knows. Chances are at this point they are not ready to buy, and will usually perform several more searches before they do decide to make a purchasing decision..'

Fascinating to find that getting the customer at the end of the phases, when they are actually ready to buy, has seemingly more attractive keywords in terms of ranking for them. I am intrigued by learning to rank quickly and easily (formula based) for thousands of useful but less traffic keywords. It's like free money if you can remain ranked.
Damo

More attractive, longer tailed phrases that always have much less competition. People chasing the broad keywords are likely not capturing buyers, they are attracting people doing broad searches that don't quite know what they want just yet.

I have my company vision which is firststepaffiliates.com I don't understand how I incorporate me into my website. I don't want people to be turned off by the color of my skin, and not engage on my content. So I feel like I should use an alias based on the interest of my target market. Which is an age range of 35-45 which still sees a concept of color. I don't want to over think it. I think its better for me to not put an image of me, but build a brand starting out. I'm conflicted, how should I build my brand. I don't want to alienate any body. I don't want people to just ignore me, because of a perception they have been fed. I need suggestions on my brand, I don't want my color to be the excuse for people not trusting my intent.

Great lesson. You really make a valid point. We need to almost narrow our niche to the point of promoting a single product. But I guess we have to be careful that if we narrow it down too much, we don't end up promoting a product no-one is buying. That is why Jaaxy is handy. If a lot of people are looking up the keyword with not much competition then we can go for the review and promoting. I think the other issue is credibility. If we build a brand new website, we have no comments. I think a website with many comments is more trusted. Wish I knew how to get those comments started. Cheers for the training and ideas.

Extremely helpful information here. It's true, I need to remember who my customers are and learn how to connect with them.

I'm hoping as my site grows to find a way to build an email list so I can send out weekly newsletters informing my customers of new products within my niche and offering my personal recommendations, along with some helpful tips for using the product.

So, are you saying when we do our jaaxy search for key words to get ready to write a post, we should be looking for certain words that you mentioned above and then writing our post based on those key words that catch customers father asking in the buying phase? And this is going to help convert more traffic into purchasing traffic, than just writing a post on whatever?

You are exactly right. It took me going back over this material 3 times before I figured that was what was being said. It's an art and a science. As you have concluded certain keywords show where the person searching is in the Purchase Lifecycle. Write content around those keywords. The eventual outcome being that your content is picked up in their search.

That's great information you share Kyle. What I aim for and works wonderful is getting people on my list asap. Providing them with great quality newsletters that are not focused on making sales, of course there are a few affiliate links in it. Pointing to articles on your website (where you sell stuff). It is a matter of targeting really wel, which most ESP's offer. I use Aweber and it works great for me.

The best thing you can offer a potential customer is to give them the impression that you're their best friend, helping them through every step on their way. Being friendly, supportive and honest. Never ever push to buy anything and be the best at what you offer people (like information, services, freebies, etc.).

Your article is really helpful and it's interesting to research it all. Thank you for your beautiful work and have a very happy Friday Kyle!

I love your approach and you seem like you're natural at the Customer Purchase Lifecycle. :)

If you maintain your approach as you build out your website and your business, I can tell you that you are going to be very successful online and building a very substantial and respected brand over time.